Every column group, decoded for analysts.

6.1 — Columns Overview

Metrics vs. Dimensions

• Metric — numeric, supports aggregation (sum, avg, min, max).
• Dimension — describes the row; used for filtering and grouping.

Type vs. Category in column names

• Category in a name → normalized column with a fixed set of values (e.g. CommitmentDiscountCategory = spend | usage).
• Type in a name → vendor-defined column.

Feature levels

6.2 — Billing columns

The financial dimensions of a charge.

Why these distinctions matter

• Billed Cost matches invoices; Effective Cost distributes prepaid purchases across resources. Summing Effective Cost for a period will not match the invoice.
• Comparing Effective Cost to List Cost overstates savings because it includes negotiated discounts you’d never have paid anyway. To measure commitment-discount savings, compare Effective Cost vs. Contracted Cost.
• Consumed Quantity ≠ Pricing Quantity. Pricing Quantity reflects billable units after pricing rules (e.g., 500 tokens billed as 1 block of 1,000 tokens).

Worked example — preventing double-count

You purchase a reservation: List $1,000, Contracted $900. It covers 3 VM usage rows of List $1, Contracted $0.90 each.

Summing all rows = $1,003 List, $902.70 Contracted — wrong. The Usage rows are already covered by the Reservation. Filter by ChargeCategory before summing.

6.3 — Pricing

• List Unit Price — suggested price per Pricing Unit, no discounts. Validation: List Unit Price × Pricing Quantity = List Cost.
• Contracted Unit Price — agreed-upon price per Pricing Unit including negotiated discounts but excluding commitment-based discounts.
• Pricing Category — normalized: Standard, Dynamic, Committed, Other.
• Pricing Quantity / Pricing Unit — the billable unit basis (may differ from Consumed Quantity due to block pricing).
• Pricing Currency — may be national or virtual currency (credits, tokens).

6.4 — Account

• Billing Account ID / Name — the entity that pays the invoice.
• Sub Account ID / Name — nullable subdivision (Azure subscription, GCP project, AWS account).
• Billing Account Type / Sub Account Type — vendor-specific account categorisation.

6.5 — Capacity Reservations

• Capacity Reservation ID / Status — identifies reserved capacity blocks (Used, Unused).
• Crucial for measuring reservation efficiency: unused capacity = waste / opportunity.

6.6 — Charge

• Charge Category (normalized): Usage, Purchase, Tax, Credit, Adjustment. The single most important filter for safe aggregation.
• Charge Class: Correction (or null). Marks rebill / adjustment rows.
• Charge Description — vendor-supplied free text. Don’t use it as a stable filter.
• Charge Frequency: One-Time, Recurring, Usage-Based.

6.7 — Charge Origination (v1.3+)

New in v1.3 — clarifies the difference between Service Provider (the brand you contract with) and Host Provider (the underlying infrastructure provider). Important for marketplace SaaS billed through a hyperscaler.

6.8 — Commitment Discounts

• Commitment Discount ID / Type / Category / Status — identifies and categorises the discount.
• Commitment Discount Category (normalized): spend, usage.
• To measure commitment-discount savings, compare Effective Cost vs. Contracted Cost on usage rows covered by a commitment.

6.9 — Location

• Region ID / Name — the deployment region (immutable ID; mutable display name).
• Availability Zone — finer-grained location, when applicable.

6.10 — Resource

• Resource ID / Name / Type — the thing being charged for.
• Tags — the JSON key-value column; foundation of allocation, chargeback, showback.
• Always join on Resource ID; use Resource Name only for display.

6.11 — Service

• Service Name — provider-defined service the charge applies to.
• Service Category (normalized): high-level group (e.g. Compute, Storage, Networking, Databases).
• Service Subcategory (v1.1+) — finer normalization.

6.12 — SKU

• SKU ID / Price ID / Meter — provider-defined product offering and the pricing dimension being metered.
• Use Sku-prefixed columns for product-level reporting and rate optimisation analysis.

6.13 — Timeframe

• Charge Period Start / End — the time interval the charge applies to.
• Billing Period Start / End — the broader invoicing period.
• Reminder: start dates are inclusive, end dates are exclusive — be careful around month and year boundaries.